A new study has found that Linux is more secure than most commercial software -- results that echo what its proponents have long said.

A four-year study released today by Coverity, reports Linux has a low bug count, making the code more stable and secure. The 2.6 Linux production kernel, now being shipped with software from Novell and other Linux vendors, contains 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code, far below the industry average, said Seth Hallem, Coverity's CEO.

"Our findings show that Linux contains an extremely low defect rate and is evidence of the strong security of Linux," Hallem said. "Many security holes in software are the result of software bugs that can be eliminated with good programming processes."